IBM invests to accelerate development and commercialisation of disruptive technologies in Asia

IBM invests to accelerate development and
commercialisation of disruptive technologies in Asia·Close to 5,000
IBM Cognitive Solution Professionals across the region co-creating with clients
to drive transformation·New Watson
Centre at Marina Bay to house IBM Garage Singapore and IBM Studios - Singapore

In less than five years,
disruptive technologies such as cognitive computing and blockchain are expected
to drive dramatic shifts in every industry, from healthcare, to financial
services, to tourism. To help clients of all sizes in the Asia Pacific
region lead in shaping the future of their industries, IBM (NYSE: IBM)today
announced plans to assist in the rapid prototyping and commercialisation of
solutions based on cognitive computing and blockchain.

IBM today opened The
Watson Centre at Marina Bay, an incubator designed to bring together
organisations of all sizes, business partners and IBM experts to co-create
business solutions that leverage IBM's cognitive, blockchain and design
capabilities. IBM’s new Asia Pacific headquarters is based in the same
location, in the heart of Singapore’s financial district.

Watson Centre at Marina Bay
will act as a centre of expertise for almost 5,000 IBM cognitive solutions
professionals in the Asia Pacific region alone, including researchers, IBM
Watson specialists, data scientists, software engineers, agile developers and
analytics experts. It will also offer education, hackathons, and customised
workshops for a broader ecosystem of innovators including software companies,
startups, developers and systems integrators.

The Centre will play host to
Asia Pacific clients looking to lead in a variety of markets and industries,
using Watson technologies that reason, improve through learning, and discover
insights hidden in large amounts of complex data. IBM has been working to meet
growing demand for cognitive computing in Asia Pacific through a variety of
avenues, including partnerships with Bumrungrad International Hospital in
Thailand and SK Holdings C&C in Korea, as well as establishing developer
ecosystems in the region.

“We are pleased with IBM’s
decision to establish their APAC HQ and the new Watson Centre, together with a
number of innovation initiatives, in Singapore to develop impactful digital
solutions for their clients,” said Yeoh Keat Chuan, Managing Director,
Singapore Economic Development Board. “This is a testament to Singapore’s
growing start-up ecosystem, presence of strong industry verticals and the
availability of digital talent with deep capabilities.”

Financial
ServicesDBS Bank, a leading financial
services group in Asia, willwork
with Watson Centre at Marina Bay to develop new use cases based on disruptive
technologies, and to assist in its strategy to support FinTech startups in the
region.Mr Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS
said, “At DBS, we seek to leverage digital technology to make banking simple
and effortless for our customers. As we shape the future of banking, it is
important to work with a thriving innovation ecosystem to tap into disruptive
technology and ideas. Our partnership with IBM will help us to continue driving
innovation within DBS, as well as assist in the acceleration and development of
locally-generated Fintech innovations.”

Healthcare

Parkway Pantai, one of Asia’s
largest integrated private healthcare groups, is working with IBM to enhance
the quality of patient care and improve patient outcomes in its intensive care
units at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, Singapore. In line with Parkway
Pantai's effort to leverage new technologies to improve patient care and
outcomes, the use of Watson technologies is helping to provide proactive
patient monitoring and early intervention through real-time data analysis and
notifications to nurses in anticipation of critical and life-threatening
events.
Dr Kelvin Loh, Chief Executive Officer of Singapore Operations Division,
Parkway Pantai said, "Systems like cognitive computing can continuously
read, monitor and quickly make sense of vast amounts of data. With decision
support tools like Watson, our clinicians and nurses can get data in the right
context, faster, and personalized to the patient's needs. This translates to
greater efficiency and better outcomes for our patients."

Tourism

A key element of advancing cognitive
technologies around the globe is making Watson APIs and services available to
enterprises and developers via the Watson Platform. ZUMATA Technologies, a
supplier of consolidated hotel inventory services to online travel companies
around the world, is leveraging IBM Watson to enable a more personalized
experience for hotel recommendations. ZUMATA’s platform continuously learns
from every customer interaction, delivering more personalized experiences and
thereby improving booking conversions.Robert Meza, Director of ZUMATA said, “For
many people, planning a trip can be overwhelming and time consuming. There is
so much information to digest and choosing where to go, where to stay and
comparing price with value can be daunting. During the process of booking
travel and accommodation, customers are looking for both inspiration and
convenience. We aim to make travel personal again and match consumers with
their perfect trip more efficiently.”

IBM Garage Singapore

With the advent of blockchain, and the
increasing demand from clients across Asia to explore the possibilities of this
transformative technology, IBM will help accelerate the design, development and
commercialization of Singapore blockchain applications through the IBM Garage
and the IBM Global Entrepreneur program.

At the IBM Garage, experts collaborate with
clients, developers and entrepreneurs to test-drive tools, processes, and
procedures to make Blockchain real. The garage creates a bridge between the
scale of enterprise and culture of startups and supports the development of an
Open Standards based Blockchain ecosystem and creates new work opportunities in
Singapore.
IBM Global Entrepreneur Program helps startups and entrepreneurs who are
building new generation of distributed ledger applications on the Blockchain
harness the power of IBM Cloud, as well as deeply connect and embed them into
IBM’s vast global network of enterprise clients, consultants, Innovation
Centres and more to rapidly build, scale quickly and accelerate growth.

"Watson and Blockchain are two
technologies that will rapidly change the way we live and work, and our clients
in Asia Pacific are eager to lead the way in envisioning and creating that
future,” said Randy Walker, Chairman and CEO, IBM Asia Pacific. “Here they can
leverage the latest in customer experience design, use cognitive technology to
draw insight from vast quantities of data, and draw on IBM's huge investments
in research and development. In partnership with our clients we are nurturing
local talent and building an ecosystem to accelerate the development of
cognitive solutions and Blockchain platforms.”

IBM Studios -
Singapore

The Watson Centre at Marina Bay will also host IBM
Studios – Singapore, a new centre that will blend experience design and
digital expertise to support customer innovation. With this Studio, IBM
will help Asia Pacific clients analyse business challenges and develop
solutions grounded in more individualised digital experiences through a
combination of IBM’s research technology, cognitive capabilities and experience
design.

Stefan Hirsch, ASEAN Lead for IBM iX said,
“Our designers work with clients through the customer experience from strategy,
creative and design to scalable digital, commerce, mobile and wearable
platforms. We sit side-by-side with our clients to invent and co-create
personalised, innovative solutions using IBM’s leadership in cognitive,
research and design to take digital experiences to the next level for clients.
”

IBM Watson: Pioneering
a New Era of Computing
Watson represents a new era in computing called cognitive computing, where
systems understand the world the way humans do: through senses, learning, and
experience. Watson continuously learns from previous interactions, gaining in
value and knowledge over time. With the help of Watson, organizations are
harnessing the power of cognitive computing to transform industries, help
professionals do their jobs better, and solve important challenges.

To advance Watson, IBM has three dedicated
business units: Watson, established for the development of
cloud-delivered cognitive computing technologies that represent the
commercialization of "artificial intelligence" or "AI"
across a variety of industries; Watson Health, dedicated to improving the ability of
doctors, researchers and insurers and other related health organizations to
surface new insights from data to deliver personalized healthcare; and Watson IoT, focused on making sense of data embedded in
more than 9 billion connected devices operating in the world today, which
generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of new data daily.

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